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Nathan Yan (he/him/his), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

I hate bigots. 

I’ve encountered bigots mainly online. I’ve come across them, for example, on Reddit and Discord, two discussion websites. They rant about politics, gender equality and race relations. They’re always anonymous, going by made-up user names. They’re rude, they lie and they seem to hate everything around them. Democracy, women’s rights and Black Lives Matter get them really riled up. Another annoying characteristic of these people is they always make baseless assumptions. With no information, they assume random facts about foreign people. They make me think of that old stereotype: overweight guys surrounded by junk, typing from their mother’s basement. 

My family is from China, but I was born in Canada. A few years ago, my family and I travelled to China to visit relatives. I have to confess that I was a bit prejudiced — embarrassingly so. I envisioned the situation in China as a formal palace with people dressed in Mao suits who were all stereotypically good at maths, as most Chinese people are assumed to be. Boy, was I in for a surprise. No one bowed. My extended family joked and laughed like normal people. People were dressed in casual Western clothing. None of my cousins were hyper-intelligent prodigies, but instead normal students. A lot of people spoke English, which complimented my meagre Mandarin. I believe if some of these people from Reddit or Discord, who were xenophobic and viewed China as extremely foreign, were to travel to China, they would have their eyes opened like I did. Just because people look a little different doesn’t mean that they are going to behave in a way that is different to how I behave at home in Canada.

Once when I was travelling in Europe, I went to museums in London, Paris, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Venice and more. I’ll admit, in the beginning, I was glued to my phone because I didn’t believe they were  interesting. After my family berated me, I put it down and started examining the exhibits and environments throughout these places. Despite being completely uninterested before, I took time to stop and read informational plaques and listen closely to the tour guide’s explanations. After that one trip, I began to take time to research the places we were going to. In  every monument and book were stories important to a country’s culture. For example, there was a story about a child saving the city of Brussels from explosives called Manneken Pis, or facts I learnt about Swiss knife manufacturing in Switzerland. Travelling to these countries let me see the depth and detail of these countries up close and build a deeper understanding of the people as well. If the aforementioned bigots were to travel, I believe they could too become invested in these cultures, and grow closer to foreign people.

People often feel indifferent to foreign subjects, instead preferring to focus on domestic affairs and topics. Travelling helps us understand the depth of foreign cultures, and this is important because many stigmas and biases are based on a lack of understanding. If xenophobic bigots tried travelling, they might have their biased tendencies removed. This could happen because they could learn about foreign culture, and this information might invalidate biases built on ignorance. Furthermore, they could develop a familiarity with foreign people, which might counteract their xenophobia.

At the heart of it, all we really want is to have a loving family, good food, a roof over our head, clothing, peace, and to laugh and enjoy each other’s company, whether you’re living in the Amazon rainforest, the savannas of Africa, the mountains of Papua New Guinea or the slums of San Salvador. We’re all the same, and there’s no reason whatsoever to discriminate against others. Instead of discriminating, we should seek familiarity with new people and the countless fascinating things they can tell us. For this reason, we should always travel to learn and experience the world around us, and I hope the biased bigots of the world can travel to truly understand it.

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Hi my name is Nathan Yan, I am a student at David Thompson Secondary School. I enjoy activities like debate, computer science and chess, and my favourite subject is math.